


Set the Key to the Herald's Symphony

by underlanderfromtheoverland



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M, SBURB, sburb DND game, tabletop game
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:35:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29795460
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/underlanderfromtheoverland/pseuds/underlanderfromtheoverland
Summary: I play a Sburb DND game, and this is vignettes of the pre-scratch session that lead to my player's current iteration of the game. Their game is heavily glitched and very fucked up, and this is part of the reason.
Relationships: Thaddeus Spaulding/Claudia Elmore





	Set the Key to the Herald's Symphony

The door opens and you see a room, large and plain. The walls are smooth stone except for on the far end, where you see a short pedestal, about hip height, with a sun icon carved into the top. And as you watch, that icon begins to glow.

You reach for it, and the moment your fingers make contact, your vision, ALL of your vision, goes black for a moment. When you can see again, you find yourself standing in a tiny kitchen of some sort, alone, with a cruxtruder where the table should be and a totem lathe sitting in front of a window that looks out on cliffs dotted with holes. You look around, then turn and look towards an archway that leads into another room- a living room or den. And hovering above the couch is a pale green sprite, balding on top, in old style clothes that look almost Shakespearian. A low voice calls out.

"Hello?"

It sounds like it's coming from incredibly close to you. The sprite apparently hears this too and turns towards you. Then it begins to speak.

“A Page of Life in a frozen land, who would crack like glass that which should be  
A Prince of Time blinded by sound, who would kill the future to create the past  
A Bard of Void wandering and lost, who would travel through dark and become the light on the other side  
A Witch of Breath in their element, who would spin through clouds until they gave out beneath her  
An Heir of Space with riches and not much else, who would dissolve to mist that which once seemed solid  
A Rogue of Light who sees themself endlessly, who would carry death and see it made anew  
A Maid of Hope bound by dreams, who would halt the storms with a single breath  
A Sylph of Doom surrounded by pricks, who would climb futility and see beyond it  
The Heroes long awaited, who will set the key to the herald's symphony"

That low voice comes again. "What the hell is going on."

Your vision flashes black for a moment, then you're standing back in the tower. The glow has died from the sun icon, but as you try to gather your wits, it begins to glow again. 

You see the room you saw on the meteor, but it's clean, and whole, and bright. And there are several people standing in the room. At the control panel, you see a tall, skinny girl, maybe 16 years old, with long, straight, strawberry blonde hair and rounded glasses with a thick frame. You can see that she's got a scar cutting across her cheek and a few bruises. She's wearing a long, sleeveless dress in a shade of dark green. There's a symbol on her chest that looks almost like a skull, but it's in a darker green, and there's a long hood to match. 

Standing next to her is a taller man, maybe in his early 20s. He looks built, but body builder-style built. He's got straight blonde hair that barely brushes his ears, but a section of it looks almost singed. His clothes are basically a black tee shirt and pants with a hood, but there's a white spiral design on his chest. With them is another tall, beefy, 20-something man, but he's got black, curly hair and just looks kinda done with the whole situation. He's just wearing a tee shirt and jeans. The man in black speaks.

"...Come on, Ter, you know you're not the best one for this."

"Actually, 'Cal' I believe I am. "One who invites creation through rules" is one of the abilities of my title. What is more apt for ectobiology?"

"You can't tell me you honestly think a doom player is better than a life player for this” He gestures at the other guy, who sighs and shakes his head.

"I really don't want to be in charge of the ecto-bio-bullshit"

Another voice chimes in and you turn your head to look at a woman sitting against the wall to the right of the machinery.

"Can one of you just do it and stop the argument? The Beat is hounding me hard about something right now and all this shouting isn't helping my migraine"

The speaker is young woman, again, early 20s. She has long, ginger-red hair with a crimp in it like it was just pulled out of a ponytail. Despite the fact that it clashes horribly with her coloring, she's wearing a short sleeve red shirt and slightly darker shorts that seem to poof out slightly. Her hood is pushed back, and you can see that it's attached to a cape that falls about halfway down her back. If there's a symbol on her chest, you can't see it, because her knees are drawn up to her chest and she's resting her chin on her arms.

The girl in green, Ter, speaks again, and you turn to look back to her. "I must insist that I be the one."

The man in black, Cal, responds "And I must insist that Steve do it."

The guy in jeans sighs again, but before he can say anything, a voice comes from off to your left. It sounds like a guy. 

"And I must insist that this argument isn't getting us anywhere, so why don't we all just shut the fuck up for a second. Okay?"

The girl in red chimes in with "I second that,” and you hear a faint sound that makes you think she may have flopped over onto her side. 

"Guyssss, can't we just, like... get along for once?" a new voice chimes in. 

You hear a sarcastic "No" from the same general direction as the previous two and finally turn to look. The one who spoke is a young woman with longish blonde hair wearing a bright blue tunic over a slightly darker skirt, and a two-tailed hood. There's a symbol on her chest that makes you think of toothpaste squeezed out of the tube. She's leaning back on her arms with her legs stuck out directly in front of her and she's turning her ankles from side to side to make her feet move almost like a newton's cradle. 

A little behind her, there's a very wide young man with dark brown hair laying on his back, looking towards you out of the corner of his eye. He's wearing a yellow tunic with two tails in the back and slightly darker breeches, along with a hood similar to one that many of the others seem to be sporting. On his chest, there's a white symbol that looks like a pair of wings and he's got a small pair of nearly square glasses pushed up onto his forehead. 

Laying against him, with her head on his chest and his hand running through her hair is a stick of a young woman with short black curls. She's wearing an orange tunic with high cutouts over her hips and a pair of loose orange shorts. On the ground next to her is a piece of orange fabric you suspect to be a hooded cowl of some sort. The last two look really tired and kinda beat up. The woman in blue turns and gives a teasingly annoyed look at the woman in orange, who gives a friendly smirk back. 

“Well, then what do you suggest?” the woman in blue lets herself drop back down so her head is resting on the woman in orange's thigh. The woman in orange just shrugs. 

“Well aren't you useful.” 

“Fight me, Helen” 

“Maybe later, Claudia” 

The guy they're laying on or on-by-proxy chimes in with a low, rumbling “Now now, girls, you're both pretty.” 

The woman in orange, who was called Claudia, turns her head slightly and says “Fight me, Ted” 

He smiles and says “What will you give me when I win?” 

“Hmm... hadn't thought about it” she leans up and pecks him on the lips to the sound of an annoyed groan from the group off to the right and a distant chorus of “get a room”s and “holy shit can you not”s. The woman in blue, Helen, doesn't seem phased by it at all. You find yourself rolling your eyes and hear a faint sigh from nearby.

Then you once again return to the small room, and once again, that sun icon glows. 

You blink and you're back in the room, where Ter is staring over the shoulder of the woman in orange, Claudia, and the guy wearing jeans, Steve, as they mess with buttons on the control panel. You seem to have taken a seat to the right of the woman in red and the woman in blue, Helen, is sitting to your right with her head on your shoulder. You can just barely make out the sounds of a quiet argument from the group at the control panel. Before you can really make out anything, Helen speaks up.

“Oh my godddd. Can they just hurry uuppp. It's been like two hours...”

“Two hours, 10 minutes to be exact.” You glance over at the woman in red, who has her face tucked into the crook of her elbow.

“Thanks for the exact measurement of boredom,” that nearby voice supplies.

Before anyone can say anything else, the machines suddenly whir to life with a call of “Fuck yeah!” from Claudia. She pumps a fist in the air as a silhouette of green slime appears on the round platform, collapses, then is sucked into the far left vat on the far left machine.

“Was... that supposed to happen?” Steve asks

Claudia shrugs and mashes another button as Steve tries to grab for her hand and pull it away.

The woman in red lets out a hissing breath and presses her forehead into her arm even harder. You wrap an arm around her and she leans into you. Another green slime silhouette appears and is suctioned into the right tube on the far left machine.

“Are you SURE this is how it's supposed to go?” Steve asks.

Helen calls out, “If it's not, then we're already in a doomed timeline, so might as well keep going”. The woman in red recoils from the noise and makes an annoyed sound."

Claudia points back at Helen with a triumphant expression. “Helen gets it!”

The man in yellow, who she called Ted, says “We all get it, Claude. Can we just get this done?” from the left, somewhere out of your line of sight.

“Why? Got plans later?”

“Maybe...”

And there's another chorus of groans and one call of “Not in front of the child,” which earns an annoyed look from Ter.

The process of button mashing, Steve worrying, and the occasional bout of flirting between Claudia and Ted continues until the last vat fills. Claudia presses one final button and suddenly eight babies appear on the round platform. Almost instantly, Helen is scrambling towards them and pulls one into her lap. 

“Ohmygod they're so cuutee” She bounces the baby gently. “So we gotta do the meteor thing with them, right?” she asks, looking towards you, and you find yourself nodding.

“We'll send them out as soon as we have the others.” says that nearby voice, and you now realize that it's you, or at least whoever you're watching through.

There's the flash of darkness again, and you're back by the pedestal. 

When the darkness fades, you find yourself in the same room, the same position, even. The eight babies have been moved and are now being herded in a corner by Ted and Helen, though Cal looks like he's trying to help, kind of. 

Claudia, Steve, and Ter are still at the console, messing with buttons. Another green silhouette appears, but this one is infant sized. Like the full-sized ones, it collapses and is taken up into the far left tank. As they repeat this process, the woman in red pulls her hood up, then down over her eyes.

“Marie, do you need to go home?” your voice asks, but the woman in red, Marie, shakes her head.

As the machine suctions up the sixth pile of goop, she suddenly pitches forward, muffling a shout by biting down on her hood and clutching at her temple. 

“Marie?” Cal is at her side almost instantly. 

She tries to bat him away, hissing “No. Fuck! Oh, fuck!”

Cal calls for Steve to “help her, damnit!”, but before Steve can take more than a step, everything suddenly flashes white, then red, then black.

You're snapped back into your body, your heart still racing. The pedestal glows again. 

The blackness lingers for a moment this time, then you find your eyes slowly blinking open, but everything looks fuzzy and a high-pitched ringing sound makes muffled voices incomprehensible. The fuzz slowly fades, as does the ringing, and a pale blur resolves into Claudia's face leaning over you.

“Glad to see death by classpect backfire isn't just or heroic,” she says, and gives a smile, but it's tight and there's worry in her eyes. She turns away for a moment and says “Hey, Erik woke up”

Ted comes into view next to Claudia and you, or maybe it's Erik, slowly try to sit up. The room instantly begins tilting in an almost nauseating way and you lay back down quickly. 

“Still not pleasant to die,” you-slash-he mumbles, and Claudia nods, then says

“Hey, I'm gonna have Steve check you over, just in case.” You nod a little, like it hurts to move, but you can't feel the pain that's making it so difficult.

She moves away and you turn your head towards the left to follow her movement. You see Marie laying on the ground with her head in Cal's lap and her eyes closed. Steve is kneeling next her. His eyes are also closed, but it looks like it's in concentration. Claudia approaches, but she doesn't say anything. You watch for a moment, then turn to look the other direction. You see the machinery, still with six of the vats full of green goo, but the last machine is shattered and smoking and spiderweb cracks cross the round platform from where Marie was when she collapsed. Ter is standing there, still as a statue, staring at the machinery with her back to you and the rest of the group.

“Are you-” you hear Cal begin to speak, but Steve shushes him, and you turn to look. 

Steve has one hand up in a 'give me a minute' gesture and pinches his eyes shut even harder. “She's hurt. Let me concentrate.” he grinds out.

Everyone goes quiet for a minute and Claudia sits on the floor to wait. You see Helen come into your field of view, then sit next to your head. She silently makes a shooing motion at Ted, who goes to sit next to Claudia.

Its silent for a little while, and you close your eyes. All you see is darkness, but not the same darkness as when the transition happens. This darkness has little bits of light to it, and even a tint of dark blue. After a short time, you hear a faint gasp and your eyes open again. Marie is sitting up, but she's swaying slightly, and Cal has a hand on her back to make sure she doesn't fall over. 

“I'm so sorry,” she whispers, staring off into the distance towards the machine.

“What? It's just a machine. A little title power and some grist and we'll have it up and running again in no time” Cal says, but his voice is tight, and he doesn't sound like he quite believes it.

“No... no, it won't” Ter says, and everyone, including you, turns to look at her. She's still standing by the machines with her back to the group. “Tell them, Marie.”

Everyone turns back to Marie, who looks like she would rather be anywhere but here. “... One who destroys mechanics” she whispers. “I lost control, and... I'm sorry” A tear rolls down her cheek and she brushes it away quickly. 

Helen leans in. “Well, it was just the bonus ones, right? The baby versions of us are fine and sent out, so the others are-”

“No.” Marie cuts her off. “I can feel it.”

“I can as well” Ter says

“Feel what?” Cal asks, but his voice is quiet, like he already knows

“We're not the alpha timeline anymore. And I am beginning to wonder if we ever were” Ter says, and Marie nods.

There's a moment of silence. Then Ted speaks. “Well, shit.”

Then it flashes black. The gold button glows again. 

You see a well-finished, but comfortable looking living room. There's a pair of overstuffed armchairs flanking a small table. Across from them is a matching sofa that looks like it could seat five and also like small children could get lost in the cushions. There's a thick rug between them and a coffee table off to the side, but indents in the rug make you think the coffee table once resided in the space between the chairs and the couch. You hear many overlapping voices from somewhere offscreen and Erik sighs as you drop into one of the armchairs. 

A second later, Helen comes in and flops onto the couch, taking up pretty much the whole thing, though she's quickly evicted from other people's spots as they file in. Ted claims the other armchair and Claudia claims his lap, which earns a few eye rolls and one whispered “could you get any more saccharine?” After eviction, Helen takes the leftmost spot on the couch. Steve drops in to her right, then Ter to his right, then Cal, then Marie. Marie still looks exhausted and stares down at the rug.

“So...” Steve sighs.

“So.” Ter echoes.

“What now?” Claudia asks

“Ter, can't you like, manipulate the doom away from us or something?” Cal asks

Ter gives him a look and says, “That was the first thing I tried after I realized. It didn't work.”

“Well, then... Erik, do your Bardy thing and get rid of the void or something”

You shake your head and Erik says. “It doesn't work that way”

"Well we've got to try something!”

Ted snaps, “Hey, stop yelling at him. We're all freaked out, but if we break apart now we'll never fix this”

“Oh, what are you going to do, Hope at me?” Cal snaps back

“Oh, like Space is any more useful right now.”

“Shut up,” Erik snaps. “I have a concussion, and I'm pretty sure Marie isn't up to this shit right now either.”

“Well this wouldn't have happened if she had just controlled her powers better” Helen says with a small shrug, and Cal immediately turns and glares at her.

“You weren't so fucking hot with your breathy shit right after you ascended either, so just shut up!”

“Yes, but I'm not a destroyer class,” Helen glares at him with an intensity that surprises you. “Especially not one of the fundamentals of a universe!”

You press your hands to your head and Erik shouts “Oh my god, WHAT DID I JUST SAY?” and the entire room goes silent. 

“Erik...” Claudia says hesitantly, like she's trying to talk down someone with a weapon. “I need you to calm down, okay?”

You turn to look at her, then glance down and you see pools of blackness beginning to gather around your feet and hands. “Shit, sorry” he says, and the void dissipates.

“So what are we gonna do about this?” Ted asks after an awkward silence.

“What can we do?” Ter asks, though it sound more rhetorical than not."

"We can't just give up!” Helen says, giving Ter a disbelieving look.

“We're doomed. This timeline, no, this entire universe, is unwinnable. The only thing we can do is initiate the scratch”

As soon as she says that, there's chaos. People are shouting denials, asking why she would even suggest that. One voice stands out above the rest. It's Helen.

“A year, Ter. A whole fucking year. That's how long we've been here, and you want to tell me that it's all for nothing because one person fucked up one thing?”

Helen gets more and more frantic the longer she speaks and by the time she's done, she's practically screaming, and everyone else is silent. The silence continues for a moment, then Ter lifts her head and gives a single nod.

“Yes. That's what doomed means. Everything we did here essentially means nothing because, even if we did initiate the scratch, there would be no chance of the new session winning. We are an eight-player session and the post-scratch session must be the same. The last ectobiology apparatus is destroyed with no chance of repair, which means there will be only six to play.”

“So, what, we just wait to die?” Helen asks, sagging back into the couch. Ter purses her lips and nods again. Then she gives a faint shiver and turns to glare at Steve. “Steve, I can feel you scanning me.”

Steve shrugs, “Sorry, just trying to see if The Growth will tell me anything, like The Blight tell you stuff about doomed universes and what..ev..er” he trails off and turns to look at Claudia. His eyes drift lower, then flicker back to her face. “You're pregnant?”

She goes pale, then nods. “Twelve weeks.”

There's silence, then suddenly Helen is launching herself at Claudia and hugging her and giggling in a way that almost sounds like squeaking.

“Nothing like the threat of imminent death to make someone horny” Steve mutters, and everyone else just stares in shock.

"Okay, really?” Cal sighs after he collects himself, “We weren't serious when we said to get a room.”

Claudia smirks at him and Ted turns slightly pink. 

Helen begins babbling about all the cute baby things she's going to alchemize, when suddenly Ter stands up.

“That is how we do it” she says, staring at Claudia's stomach. “That child. We initiate the scratch as we do a ritual to connect the child to the game. We change the game itself and force it to accept it.”

Claudia puts a protective hand on her stomach and Ted wraps his arms around her. “But how do we know it'll work?” she asks.

“We don't,” Ter admits with a shrug, “But your other option is to have the child naturally, then watch them die as this universe is consumed by paradox space. But if Steve accelerates their growth to weeks rather than months, and we plan it very carefully, we may be able to give a post-scratch universe a chance to win.”

Everyone looks around at each other, then look to Claudia and Ted. They make eye contact for just a moment, then Claudia's eyes harden into an expression of fierce determination. “Okay. Let's do it.”

You find yourself back in your body and the symbol glows again. 

You're back in that same living room, but this time, you are alone. you take a deep breath, then let it out slowly and lay down on the couch. “Here goes nothing...” he whispers, then you close your eyes. It's that blue-tinted darkness again, but after a moment you see two pools of black forming in the dark. The blackness in those patches is absolute, then it begins to waver. Something seems to tear in two different locations and two soft-edged scenes appear. The left one shows a massive statue of a viola and bow atop a platform shaped like a red gear. You see Cal and Marie standing on the edge of the platform. Marie is clutching a small object that looks like a jagged crystal. Cal has his arm around her, and her head is resting on his shoulder and you hear the tail end of a conversation.

“... Will we even meet in this... flipped universe? Who will we even be? I don't...” Marie falls silent, and Cal just pulls her closer. 

Ter is sitting on the edge, not too far away from them, staring down at the ground and clenching and unclenching her hands in her skirt. She says nothing and just... stares off into the distance.

The right scene shows the ectobiology lab with its ruined machine and ones filled with goo. Claudia is wearing a loose nightgown and is laying on a cot near the control pannel. She's heavily pregnant, but she doesn't look almost a year older. You assume that their plan to have Steve accelerate the child's growth was successful. Ted is kneeling on one side of her, and Helen is on the other. They're each holding one of her hands. Steve is kneeling at the end of the cot, but his jeans and teeshirt have been replaced by a beige shirt with dark brown sleeves and a green symbol on the chest, and a pair of dark brown shorts. A brown cape lays on the floor near a pile of towels. It seems the last of them reached godtier.

"I'm here” Erik whispers, but his voice sounds strained and echo-y. “You're connected through the void. Start the ritual” he whispers. Cal nods once and grabs Marie's hand. “I love you. Maybe in this other life, I'll find you again.” he whispers, and kisses the back of her hand.

“I'd like that” she whispers back, her voice thick, like she's trying to stop herself from crying.

With that, Cal drops her hand and steps back. He takes a breath and composes himself. Then he begins to speak.

“I, Calvin Taylor, Heir of Space, call upon The World. I am one who becomes Precision to guide this ritual.” There's a moment where it looks like nothing happens, then he's gone, and a faint shudder goes through everyone else. 

“Goodbye, Cal” Marie whispers at the same time that Claudia speaks up.

“I, Claudia Elmore, Rogue of Light, call upon The Stars. I am one who distributes luck, and I give it to my team to guide this ritual. That's pretty fucking obvious, isn't it?” She barely makes it to the end of the statement as a contraction rips through her.

Helen speaks next. “I, Helen Baker, Witch of Breath, call upon The Breeze. I am one who manipulates Purpose. I change the purpose of this child. He is to be a player, taking the place of the two we couldn't make.”

Then Steve. “I, Steve Fisher, Page of Life, call upon The Growth. I am one who gives others Domination. I give him domination of an aspect. I don't care which one, but god knows you can't survive this game without one.”

Claudia grunts as another contraction happens, but it seems that Steve has it under control.

Ted speaks next. “I, Thaddeus Spaulding, Maid of Hope, call upon The Strife. I am one who keeps Irrationality in order. This is batshit insane, but it's gotta work. I am one who defends through acceptance and rejection. I accept our deaths but reject the destruction of our line. This WILL work. It has to.” He leans in and kisses Claudia's forehead as another contraction happens. “and I am one who provides themself with Hope, because god knows I need it right now” he whispers, so that only you and Claudia can hear."

Suddenly another sound joins Ted's voice. The sound of a baby crying. “He's here. He's a little small, but he's healthy. Now we gotta go!” Steve says, and you see him stand up with a bundle in his arms. Helen gives Claudia a tired smile, kisses her hand, then stands up and smashes her fist into a button on the control panel. There's a flash of light in the right scene, then there are six more babies on the platform. As Helen and Steve begin moving them to somewhere offscreen, you hear Helen speak. 

“I, Helen Baker, Witch of Breath, call upon The Breeze... again. I am one who Defies direction. I defy the direction we're headed, apocalypse-wise, and defy the direction this meteor will go. It WILL deliver this child somewhere safe, to people who will love him.”

Claudia turns towards Ted, who grabs her into a hug and just holds her as she begins to cry.

“Mesa team, go” you hear Erik whisper. Ter finally looks up, and nods once. She stands and takes a breath. 

“I, Teri Barton, Sylph of Doom, call upon The Blight. I am one who manipulates abstractions of destruction. The scratch is the ultimate in destruction and the ultimate in abstract constructs. I change its method and allow the child to be written into the new universe. I am one who invites creation through self-sacrifice and invite the creation of a better universe through my death and the death of my team.”

Marie, who has just been staring at the spot Cal was, stays silent for a moment, until Erik whispers “Marie, go.”

“Oh, right.” she says and steps up to the giant viola, which is easily 10 times her height.

“Wait” Claudia gasps, pulling away from Ted. Marie stops.

“I, Claudia Elmore, call upon The Stars again. I am... I was one who concealed Fate within themself..” with that, she collapses back against Ted, who holds her even tighter. 

Marie waits a moment more, then lifts the crystal. “I, Marie DuJardin, Prince of Time, call upon The Beat.” She hesitates for a moment, then continues. “I am one who destroys Instability to make room for the growth of The Timeline. I destroy our unwinnable, unstable universe to allow The Timeline to continue in another.” She reaches up with the crystal and slams it across the stone strings on the viola. There's a flash of golden light and they crumble. She stops, staring at the viola. “It... didn't work.” she whispers. 

There's barely a reaction from anyone. Ted pulls Claudia closer. Helen sags against the control panel. Steve stares off into the distance. Ter drops to the ground and holds her head.

“No.” Erik whispers. “I, Erik Simmons, Bard of Void, call upon The Null. I am one who allows Ignorance to fall to ruin. Figure it out, Marie!” he whispers, but his voice gets weaker and weaker. There's another pause, then Marie suddenly looks up.

“The bow.” she whispers, then clamors up the viola, trying to find purchase wherever she can. She almost falls twice, but she makes it up to the bow and slices at the strings with the crystal. They crack, then shatter, sending out a wave of golden light. You barely hear a triumphant but somehow sad laugh, then the left image disappears altogether. 

“We did it” Erik whispers, then the right image is consumed by darkness and your vision flashes black."

The sun icon glows again, but it seems brighter than before, like it's more concentrated. 

"The living room appears again, as viewed by someone laying on the couch and looking towards the chairs. The left side of the room is slowly being eaten away by golden light while the right is dissolving into black. You hear Erik's voice, but it's weak.

“What... But it worked...”

Then you hear a voice that sounds like music. “You are not mine, child. But you are of my twin.”

“What? Did I invert?”

“You did, my Mage. You do not have long until you are consumed by the scratch”

“So it worked, then?”

“It did, my child”

And Erik begins laughing, but after a few seconds it begins to sound like sobs. “Fuck” he spits, and you see the tops of his knees as he curls in on himself. “It worked. And I'm... I'm not even the right title when I die. Fuck... But I'm...” he makes a small sound of pain and closes his eyes, making the screen go dark, but it's a softer darkness now. “I... Mage of Light...” he makes another choked whimper. “I, Erik Simmons, M... Mage of Light, call upon The... The Stars? Yeah. I am one who... one who creates Clarity. For the next group of players. For... for my children. And my friends' children” he trails off for a moment. 

“If you're hearing this, it worked. I don't know what you'll see or how you'll see it, but I don't have time to explain it all now. You're a post-scratch session and you'll probably have a much more fucked up one than we had because of all the shit we had to do to make it possible. But you have to win. There's no scratching your universe. If you lose, you die. Forever. I'm sorry we couldn't do more.” He opens his eyes again and the light from the scratch meets up with the darkness that consumed the meteor, then begins inching towards the couch. “We did everything we could, but, fuck, we're just kids. You're just kids too. But you're going to have to become more. You have to become Gods. And you have to win. You have to.” 

Everything disappears in spiral of golden light and almost purple darkness, and you find yourself violently tossed back into your own bodies. There's a lingering coldness for a moment, then it's gone. For a few moments, there is just pure silence. Then, you hear something. A faint sound. The slow intake of a breath. The slow exhale to match. It's soft, almost sleepy. There's no definitive source- it seems to come from everywhere. Looking down, you see the faint outline of another symbol on the floor, a fractal spiral of endless space, taking the base of the entire building. It pulses slowly in time with the breaths. 

You hear a voice, calling weakly out. "Hello?" into the black. It's raspy, but familiar. Your eyes open, then immediately snap shut as the brightest light you've ever seen instantly blinds you. That same voice makes a small sound of pain. 

Then you hear another voice, softer- “shhh. Shhh.” You blink your eyes open again, and everything is blurry for a moment. You blink a few times, then look out into a velvet black sky, marked with pinpricks of light and translucent smears of colors. 

“This was very foolish of you”, you hear the second voice, and you whirl around. Before you stands a woman, barely taller than you and infinitely large. “Foolish and brave”, she says. Her mouth does not move, but you hear her anyway. 

“Where am I?” you hear the first voice say, a bit stronger now. And now you recognize it. Cal.

You see the edge of the woman's mouth tick up in faint amusement. “Between,” she says simply. “And beyond. Above, beneath, surrounding. You have become, my heir.

“What? Who are you?”

A faint laugh echoes everywhere, and she shakes her head. “I am that which commands you, and that which you command. I am everything and nothing. You have become me and in turn, I guard you.”

“My friends-?”

“Gone, but not completely. You, however... are not.”

“I don't understand-”

“You do.” She reaches out and touches your forehead."

You are... everywhere. 

You are an uncountable number of atoms. You are subatomic particles, you are the vibration as heat, the exchange of energy. You are a symphony of chemicals merging and parting again as they change state and form. You are here, but you are elsewhere. Atoms of you are on Claudia's cape, in the barrel of Teri's pistol, on your bedsheets in your hastily built fortress in the Land of Shapes and Reflection, in the air in Steve's lungs, in the raspberry red of Marie's smile. 

So you are here, but you could be anywhere. The universe glows around you and it’s not music like how Marie describes time, not a steady beat. No, it’s art. It’s an unchoreographed dance of atoms around each other, bright splashes of elements surging around you like colors you’ve never seen before and could never describe. You are in this universe, and every universe. You ARE this universe, and every universe. 

You hear Cal say a quiet 'Oh'. Then “did it work?” as the fundamentals of the universe swirl across your vision.

“Your session is still dead”

“But did. it. work?”

For a moment, there's nothing. Then The World speaks. “Partially. He will enter, but the balance is still incomplete. They will not win as things stand. The Game will not allow it”

"Another quiet 'oh' from Cal. “Why not?

“Did you truly think it would? Really? To change the very thing that gave you your powers in the first place? The game doesn't allow such things.”

A moment passes, then another. You blink, and you see the starscape again. You see The World again. 

“Well fuck that game. We all died for this, and I'm not letting it end like this. We put up with too much shit, lost too much- I have lost too much to give up any more! I will shred this thing down to its fucking code. I, Calvin Taylor, Heir of Space, call upon The World”. There's venom in his voice, but also elation, and The World gives him a tight smile. 

“Are you sure this is wise?” she asks condescendingly, but Cal keep speaking.

“I am one who directs precision, which I am.” He doesn't even have to complete the statement. He just watches at the subatomic particles in Steve's breath shift, a quantum fluctuation, forcing his words into line. 

“The pieces won't be in place,” the world continues

"I am one who directs creation.” You see his fist clench out of the corner of your eye and a star collapses into a black hole. 

“You really think this will work? You'll destroy as much as you create. The game does not give lightly.”

“I am one who directs form.”

“You're brave, I'll give you that, but you're a fool, extending yourself beyond your capabilities. You'll burn out, little star. Every version of you. Just stay-”

“No.” You blink again and you are the hydrogen, burning as fuel, singeing concrete and steel and atmosphere. You are the rivets, holding steel, holding in a precious bubble of air. You are a clump of stone, hurtling towards a cloudy sky. In a flash of green, the sky is gone and another takes its place. You are electrical signals, broadcasting a message. “Houston-” You are the background crackle of the universe, the echoing silence where the rest of the transmission should be. You are a pinprick of light in the daytime, marring an otherwise blue sky.

“This game takes and takes and takes. From everyone. It takes so fucking much from people who don't even know what the hell is going on, So fuck. This. Game. This time, it's GIVING.”

The World, for once, is shocked into silence that echoes the void between stars. 

“I, Calvin Taylor, Heir of Space, call upon the world.” Cal's voice is low, dangerous, almost daring her to speak.

She takes a step back, and galaxies swirl in her skirt, ripping apart and colliding.

“I am one who is protected by form. I am one who is protected by precision. And randomness. And physics. And creation. I am one who is protected by space, you heinous BITCH.” 

The world whispers an almost silent “what are you doing?”

You are ancient light. You are burning plasma. You are frozen nothingness, the infinite gaps between electrons. Cal narrows his eyes and lets out a slow breath through his nose. “I am one who commands space. And I'm. going. back.”

A ear-shattering sound, like shattering glass and ripping canvas slams you back into your own body. The afterimage of a hundred thousand supernovas dots your vision.


End file.
